Part-owner of Heat buys Walmart shopping center

As recently as 2006, what was left of the huge U.S. Steel Co. mill complex along Route 146 in South Worcester was leaking oil into the Blackstone River, causing contamination to nearby wells. Parts of the former steel foundries still stood, vacant, their empty windows like dark eyes facing the highway.

They had not produced any steel for decades. The jobs were long gone. The site's future was anything but certain.

But by 2009, the property had been transformed, the buildings bulldozed, turned into a retail shopping center dubbed Worcester Crossing. Retail giant Walmart opened its doors in May 2010 on Tobias Boland Way.

Worcester Crossing is also home to Sam's Club, an Olive Garden restaurant, and several other stores. The once blighted property has been returned to productive use.

This month, the property was purchased by a Florida billionaire with ties to Massachusetts.

Mr. Katz is the owner and president of RKCenters, a Florida real estate development firm which recently bought Worcester Crossing and several other Massachusetts shopping centers. Mr. Katz, who as a young man tried out for the Boston Celtics and is said to have had a pretty good jump shot, also owns a substantial interest in the Israeli basketball team Maccabi Tel Aviv.

RKCenters, which has a New England office in Dedham, owns 6 million square feet of retail space in New England and Florida. The company specializes in "open air" regional and community shopping centers.

According to a July 10 company press release, RKCenters purchased the 386,853-square-foot Worcester Crossing for $49 million from Madison Partners. At the same time, the company bought the Westborough Speedway Plaza on Route 9, with 185,279 square feet of space, for $18.7 million; and a shopping plaza in Stoughton for $20 million.

Speedway Plaza is anchored by Stop & Shop and Burlington Coat Factory, while the Stoughton plaza is anchored by Kohl's.

The company owns a slew of Central Massachusetts shopping centers, including the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley in Millbury; Worcester Fair plaza on Greenwood Street; Sutton Square; three shopping centers in Marlboro, including Marlboro Commons, and two more in Hudson.

Mr. Katz' career in real estate "began in the 1970s when he purchased a small apartment building in Boston. While managing the property, Mr. Katz learned several valuable lessons in adequate property maintenance and conservative development practices. During his time in the rental real estate market, he acquired more than 2,000 apartment units throughout Boston before he shifted his objectives to retail development," according to his official bio.

"In 1980, Raanan Katz founded RKCenters, a privately held real estate company focused on retail and office building development projects throughout the New England and Miami Beach areas," the bio said.

The company is obviously banking that these Central Massachusetts properties will only grow in value, and continue to be fully leased.

The purchase also bodes well for south Worcester and Quinsigamond Village, which are nearby. The successful redevelopment of the 44-acre site was never a guarantee. So many other industrial properties, even after the original buildings have been bulldozed, sit vacant, waiting for someone willing to clean up the contamination and put the property back to productive use. Many of them are in Worcester.

Whatever your feelings about Walmart, this property has returned to the tax rolls, with jobs and economic activity. And now it is owned by a billionaire whose fortune was built developing similar properties up and down the east coast.

It has come a long way.

Aaron Nicodemus can be reached at aaron.nicodemus@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter at @anic89.

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